back nextAs Dirt sat on his bed with his headphones, staring intently at his laptop screen, Salem was outside, his face pressed up against Dirt's bedroom window. "DIIIIIIIIRT!!!!! DIRT LET ME IN RIGHT NOW!!!!!! DIRT THE MOSQUITOS ARE BITING ME DIIIIIRT!!!!!! I'M TELLING SARAH!!!! SHE'S GONNA GET SOOOOO MAD AT YOU WHEN SHE SEES ALL THE MOSQUITO BITES ON ME THAT ARE ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!!! HEEEEYYY!!!!!!" He pounded his fists against the window. Dirt didn't even flinch. He just nodded his head along to the beat of the music that was playing in his ears.
After a few minutes, Salem left the window, and Dirt thought it was finally over until about five minutes later when he was back, pounding on the glass and yelling at Dirt. When that proved to not be enough, he started banging his forehead against the glass. This got Dirt's attention. "HEY! CUT THAT OUT!" Dirt yelled, waving his hand in a shooing motion at the window. Once they were looking at him, Salem gave his saddest kitten eyes, like puss in boots from Shrek 2. Dirt scoffed, rolling his eyes, and frustratedly threw his headphones off. "You're not gonna get me with that, you little bastard."
"Dirt... Please... I thought you said you were gonna take care of me...." Salem said, his bottom lip quivering, eyes watering. His demeanor was that of a sick victorian orphan boy as he pleaded with Dirt. "Please!! I was bluffing, okay?! I would have died if you didn't help me! I... I need you guys!" his voice cracked.
"God dammit," Dirt whispered to himself as he ran out of his room to open the front door. Salem was there in an instant, barrelling into Dirt and it was like a scene right out of Ghibli movie, I'm tellin' ya. Salem nuzzled his face into Dirt's chest as they awkwardly hugged him back.
Salem looked up at him, his face flushed. "Dirt?"
"...Yeah?"
"I'm hungry." Dirt scoffed and pushed Salem away from him, and closed the door behind him once they were both inside. "What's for dinner?"
Dirt sighed. "For you? Cat food. We can't afford to keep feeding you human food, okay? You'll just have to live with it." Salem whined, and then for the first time, turned into a cat right in front of Dirt's eyes. It was instant, blink and you'd miss it. It was almost like a magician snapped their fingers and poof! Boy into cat! Dirt shook his head and then filled Salem's bowl to the brim with cat food. He glared at Dirt as he reluctantly ate it.
When Salem was finished with his food, he jumped up on Dirt's lap where he sat on the couch watching tv and curled up there. Dirt smiled and gave him ear scritchies. "I'm sorry I got so mad at you," Dirt said quietly. "You're a good cat." Salem purred.